Tracking Money, Misogyny, and Misinformation with the OSINT Lens of Sarah Cammarata

In the shifting terrain of digital investigations, Sarah stands among a new generation of analysts who blend the curiosity of journalism with the precision of intelligence work. Speaking to The Intelligence Spotlight, hosted by Qais Alamdar, she traced her path from Washington’s press rooms to the opaque world of Telegram networks and financial secrecy.

Her journey is anything but linear. From reporting on defence and the Pentagon for Politico and Stars and Stripes, Sarah now operates in London as a senior intelligence analyst, specialising in corporate intelligence and open-source research. For her, the transition was more natural than it may appear. “There are so many crossovers,” she said. “One of the things I learned in journalism was thinking on your feet, how to write clearly and report the facts without introducing bias. That applies just as much to intelligence.”

She was already using open-source techniques before she knew there was a term for them. Whether digging through public records, identifying patterns on social media, or examining obscure company trails, she had long been practising OSINT without the label.

Much of Sarah’s work today focuses on financial crime. “Even if you’re given a financial statement or official document, you never take it at face value. You verify it with open sources,” she explained. Social media, often underestimated, has become a useful source in connecting digital footprints. “You might find a company’s Instagram revealing links that no corporate filing ever would.”

She highlighted OpenCorporates and North Data as two essential tools, though she quickly added a note of caution.

“Companies House in the UK is a key database, but it’s not always accurate. Even audited accounts can be misleading. The challenge is to cross-verify everything.”

But perhaps more urgent is her work on the intersection of OSINT with gendered online abuse. Her recent investigation for Wired, co-authored with journalist Anna Wolf, uncovered a network of Telegram groups targeting women who were part of the Facebook community Are We Dating the Same Guy London?

The findings were chilling. “We scraped nearly 4,000 public messages from one group. They were tracking and doxing women, especially women of colour, sharing phone numbers, locations, usernames, and intimate imagery.”

Using Telemetry.io, a Telegram analytics tool, they mapped out how the abuse unfolded. “All the data we used was public. We didn’t infiltrate groups. We didn’t need to. It was all there, available to anyone willing to look carefully.”

Yet Sarah is not blind to the psychological toll of such work. “Even just that one to two month investigation was mentally draining. There is a real risk of vicarious trauma. I initially thought I wanted to work with graphic content and violent imagery, but I’m glad I stepped back. This work is important, but it is not for everyone.”

When asked where online hate continues to spread most virulently, she noted that it is not confined to the usual suspects.

“Facebook still plays a role. TikTok, with its algorithm-driven content loops, can be particularly dangerous. And Telegram is a breeding ground. The company claims to remove hate groups, but evidence shows otherwise.”

Qais posed a hypothetical: with £100,000 and three months of editorial freedom, what would she investigate?

Sarah did not hesitate. “I would look into hate against the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans people. The abuse is intensifying in both the UK and the US. I would want to map this using AI, bringing in data scientists to help analyse language and digital trends across a wider dataset.”

She admitted the scope would need to be narrowed and refined, but the intention was clear. “I do not yet have a specific hypothesis, but I know the story is out there.”

In closing, Sarah offered a word of advice that went beyond tools and techniques. “A tool is just a tool. What really matters is the investigative mindset. And alongside that, you have to look after your mental health. You cannot continue uncovering harm if you are burning yourself out in the process.”

In a space often overwhelmed by platforms and dashboards, Sarah’s approach brings the focus back to something more enduring: human judgement, and the duty to tell stories that others would rather ignore.